Polls: Morsi calls for talks with opposition
2013-02-25 13:28
Cairo - Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi on Monday called
for a meeting with the country's opposition to discuss upcoming legislative
polls, amid calls for a boycott.
"I call on all the brothers in the different parties in
all of Egypt to come... so we can sit and put in the place the guarantees for
the transparency and fairness of the elections," Morsi said in an
interview on private satellite channel al-Mehwar.
The interview, which was due to be aired on Sunday evening,
was transmitted hours later and ended at dawn, provoking much criticism on
social networks.
Staggered parliamentary polls are set to start on April 22
over two months but opposition figures have slammed the timing of the vote
while the country is gripped by political divisions and unrest.
Leading dissident Mohamed ElBaradei, co-ordinator of the
opposition National Salvation Front (NSF), on Saturday called for a boycott.
"Called for parliamentary election boycott in 2010 to
expose sham democracy. Today I repeat my call, will not be part of an act of
deception," he posted on his Twitter account.
The coalition organised massive protests against Morsi in
November and December after he adopted now-repealed powers that shielded his
decisions from judicial review.
Other NSF officials said the coalition, an alliance of
mainly liberal and leftist parties, was yet to decide on its position.
Initially the election had been set to begin on April 27,
with a new parliament to convene on July 6.
But the dates conflicted with pre-Easter and Easter
holidays, prompting Morsi to announce new ones "in response to requests by
Christian brothers," a reference to the Coptic Church, his office said
Saturday.
The Muslim Brotherhood - from which Morsi hails- and
Islamist allies dominated the last parliamentary election in 2011 that resulted
in an Islamist-majority house which a court annulled on a technicality before
Morsi's election last June.
